Gaming machines, such as slot machines and video poker machines, are becoming increasingly popular. One reason for their popularity is the variety of games, limited only by one's imagination, which may be implemented on a gaming machine. Another reason for the popularity of gaming machines is the wide range of wager values accepted by the various gaming machines. That is, players who wish to bet 5¢ are accommodated by many gaming machines as well as those who wish to bet $5.00.
For these reasons, casinos typically like to change the games played on their gaming machines frequently. If a game played on a particular machine becomes tiring to game players, casinos may wish to replace that game with another.
Casinos would also like the ability to change the games played on their machines during “slow” periods of relatively little game play so as to attract more players to the machines. For example, on weekdays, it may be advantageous for casinos to have many gaming machines available that have a small minimum bet. On weekends and other busy times, casinos can generate more income by increasing the minimum bet required to play the machines. However, gaming machines are very expensive to manufacture. For this reason, instead of purchasing entirely new machines, casinos frequently retrofit existing machines with new games.
Gaming machines typically have a video display or mechanical reels upon which a primary game is played. Normally, the top box has a glass panel that displays pay tables for the primary game or artwork representative of the theme of the primary game. Sometimes the top box has a video display upon which a secondary game may be played. The belly glass usually has artwork representative of the theme of the primary game.
In order to modify the gaming machine so that players may play a new game on the machine, casino's must replace the chip containing the memory of the primary game and the chip containing the memory of the secondary game, if there is one. In some gaming jurisdictions, a regulatory agent must be present when such an exchange is made.
Further any glass panels containing pay tables or artwork representative of the game must be changed. Otherwise, the theme associated with the belly glass would be inconsistent with the new game. Likewise, pay tables must change to reflect the game theme and allowable bets. Accordingly, this process is very cumbersome, labor-intensive, and expensive. Gaming machine companies must maintain graphic artists and silkscreen artists, on-site, to generate new designs and the new glass. Artists silk-screen the artwork onto the glass via a very carefully controlled process, as the quality of the silkscreen process must be very high. This is because the displays are backlit to allow the light to shine through the glass. Any pinholes or other defects become immediately apparent to the gaming machine player. In addition, the company must devote service personnel to install the fresh glass. Furthermore, during this process, the game is out of commission and, therefore, unable to generate income for the casino. What's more, this process must be done on each machine individually. Thus, changing out games is done less frequently than a slot floor manager might like.
Networked gaming devices are known in the art. Interconnecting a plurality of gaming devices, such as slot machines, via a computer network to a central computer provides many advantages. Such advantages include compiling and auditing data related to the amount of coins received by the gaming devices, the amount paid to players of the devices, and tracking player information. Furthermore, memories located within peripherals contained within the gaming machine may be reprogrammed in order to update the peripherals so that they may detect newly discovered counterfeiting or other cheating schemes. However, there are no gaming machines that may be reconfigured over a network so that entire games, associated paytables and/or artwork may be modified. Furthermore, it is not possible for a casino or player to reconfigure a gaming machine to accommodate for player status or machine location within the casino.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art have long recognized the need for gaming machines wherein games, pay tables and/or artwork may be reconfigured so that casinos may quickly and efficiently change the games played on their machines as frequently as desired without having to perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of changing memory chips and display glass, and all without having to make the machines unavailable for play for long periods of time, so that the casino or its patrons may chose, from a selection of games, as to which game is played on a particular machine. The present invention also fulfills the long recognized need to reconfigure a gaming device to provide new games, pay tables, and/or artwork in response to a player's particular needs or decisions, player status, and/or the casino's gaming player's criteria.